Aristotle (384 BC- 322 BC)

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "Aristotle was the first genuine scientist in history ... [and] every scientist is in his debt."  Aristotle's logic is the most significant contribution to the history of the western spirit. Equally large contributions made to the development of biology, ethics, psychology, politics as well as our understanding of literature.

You!

Why? Philosophically too complicated to explain!

And you, dear Marcel, for the same reason!

certainly, Aristotle!

a great medical mind of all times. 

Medical practioner to Philip of Capadoccia; 

Preceptor of Alexander the Great;

One of the greatest Philosophers of all times.

Of course I will not forget you, dear Marwan. (but it is also a bit complicated to explain...)  (as soon as we travel from Athens to Philadelphia / Decapolis!!! )

You are the Carolina Herrera of this forum, dear Maria! 

Who is Carolina Herrera?

Cheers

A designer and a celebrity, dear Marcel!

I don't know that philosopher, dear Marwan ... 

I do, dear Maria!

Dear Merwane

I love midwives who deliver the beautiful moms. But I also love the philosopher Socrates and Plato who know how to deliver the ideas of human minds.

Best regards

Here's a beautiful Socrates for Roland !

https://www.google.com/search?q=socrates+quotes&rlz=1C1PRFA_pt-PTPT459PT502&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&imgil=2wzcc1Nud_gi6M%253A%253BjitkGwYgowxOHM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fmoco-choco.com%25252F2013%25252F10%25252F10%25252Fcollected-quotes-from-socrates%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=2wzcc1Nud_gi6M%253A%252CjitkGwYgowxOHM%252C_&usg=__BepALDu8_d6yXY1yqIqNP0COpoc%3D&biw=1278&bih=522&ved=0CD4Qyjc&ei=KRUDVYfmJYaBU63dgNgH#tbm=isch&tbs=rimg%3ACQlU3rFcXJchIjhX1mXajhHJSXmf8YcD6yiDWQEGumKSyo7WPCB14DBUkz9Cty8w3pbOCoaMewvcYj0WPhEsx6sqaSoSCVfWZdqOEclJEbA4m4lqZ2JQKhIJeZ_1xhwPrKIMR3UUBVT0KAcYqEglZAQa6YpLKjhGoNeQ9hjUz6yoSCdY8IHXgMFSTEc62UhgIxNoBKhIJP0K3LzDels4RL0cykjIyXkQqEgkKhox7C9xiPRF0S5E-w0EYLyoSCRY-ESzHqyppEazFy1iJPefk&q=socrates%20quotes&imgdii=CVTesVxclyEdmM%3A%3BWQEGumKSyo72pM%3BCVTesVxclyEdmM%3A

I read that the burnt library of Herculanum , totally destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption is now slowly gaining life again, with resources to medical imaging methods, that will permit to read the inner layers of those old manuscripts.

Ancient totally forgotten writers will soon come to life again, and maybe there will be a new Revolution of ideas, with the rediscovery of these old forgotten ancient thinkers.

I hope. 

Aristotle (384 BC- 322 BC)

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "Aristotle was the first genuine scientist in history ... [and] every scientist is in his debt."  Aristotle's logic is the most significant contribution to the history of the western spirit. Equally large contributions made to the development of biology, ethics, psychology, politics as well as our understanding of literature.

IBN SINA ABU ‘ALI AL-HUSAYN (980-1037)  (Avicenna) is one of the foremost philosophers in the Medieval Hellenistic Islamic tradition that also includes al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd His philosophical theory is a comprehensive, detailed and rationalistic account of the nature of God and Being, in which he finds a systematic place for the corporeal world, spirit, insight, and the varieties of logical thought including dialectic, rhetoric and poetry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/sina/art/ibn%20Sina-REP.htm

I like Rabindranath Tagore who was also a philosopher and an artist.

He wrote many stories, novels and dramas, as well as composing music and many songs. He was also an expert painter. His writings greatly influenced Bengali culture during the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Asian to win this prize. 

He, along with many contributions, worked for Unifying People.

I agree with you, dear Cecilia, that she is better known for women's fashion!

David Émile Durkheim, he formally established the academic discipline and (with Karl Marx and Max Weber) is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology. 

All this implies you give priority to the human as a thinker (accessible via literature/history), not how the person behaved during daily life?

Dear Marwan,

My favorite is Immanuel Kant

Although there are several honorable thinkers, scientists and philosophers, Pioneers are people to give credit and appreciate, I call them "Trinities" of pioneers of modern thinking: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - they taught the importance of truth.

Particularly Aristotle - creator of logic and its imperative use in theoretical establishments to validate truth, declaring happiness as the kernel of life and a believer and promoter of moderation in every activity we do, he called it the golden mean - avoiding extremes are essential to create stability of a system, which still reverberates in our society.   

Rene Descartes, he has been dubbed the father of modern philosophy, and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writing.

I for now, for the knowledge that I have, say one for all: Socrates. Because he was a great in all that he did, because he was consistent with his teachings and writings and died for those. Because he had considerable attachment to the problem of law and language, because he was "the most righteous man" of all, because he was the true philosopher of Athens, as well as the only major political. For the irony, for its Socratic, for estimation of the parents, for the love for his country.

Dear all,

Socrates, he was the origine.

While recognizing that science owes its logic to Aristotle, and that this is probably philosophy´s greatest contribution to the hard sciences, I confess my allegiance to Plato: he teaches truths without dogmatism and cloaks them in aesthetically satisfying vestments. His Symposium may well be the most influential philosophical work both in Western philosophy and in Western  literature.

I do not like apriorists! I would like philosophy to be based on perception and senses. Two contemporary such books are:

• Danielle Macbeth Realizing Reason A Narrative of Truth and Knowing. Oxford 2014.
• Carlo Cellucci Rethinking Logic:Logic in Relation to Mathematics, Evolution, and Method. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

 .

Baruch Spinoza is another favorite of mine. In his Ethices he harmonizes religion with reason.  He reasons that God is perfect Being and all other beings imperfect.  Moreover, anyone who reads Portuguese or Spanish can read Spinoza's Latin, which captures the rhythms of those Romance languages.  Recall that Spinoza spoke native Portuguese, although he resided in the Netherlands.

Dear Marwan,

I Like Sócrates: intelligent (of course), simple and current thoughts.

A life without challenges is not worth living

Vanessa

Vanessa, that is a very loose translation. What Socrates actually said (according to Plato) is that a life without self-examination is not worth living. In other words, the challenge comes from within, not from without.

Of course, in all fairness to you, Vanessa, we really do not know what Socrates actually said. Since he wrote nothing down (unlike Plato and Aristotle), everything we know about his philosophy is merely hearsay.  In fact, Socrates' figure became so fashionable, that he became a stock figure in ancient Greek culture, and famous authors (for instance, Aristophanes in "The Clouds") could put whatever words in his mouth they wished. So I prefer the Socrates of you, Marwan and Roland, because you are all are my friends.  What Socrates really said will forever remain a mystery.

Swami Vivekananda. Who said " education is the manifestation of perfection already in the man"

Dear Costas, sage from the land of Plato´s Ideas and Aristotle's metaphysics, with deep respect I must disagree with your dislike of the a priori. The greatest modern philosopher, Immanuel Kant,  in his most respected work The Critique of Pure Reason, asked the question, How are synthetic a priori judgments possible? and brilliantly responded. A priori synthetic judgments are of course the laws of physico-mathematical reason. Kant maintained that time and space are a prioris that we impose upon the chaos of sensations.  So without apriority, the modern age, advanced so brilliantly by Newtonian laws and Newton´s interpreter Kant, could not have come into being.

I like 'Jean-Jacques Rousseau' , some of his views looks interesting to me. I also admire his influence on the french society as well. Regards.

Dear Marwan,

I admire both Socrates for his method of querying students which helps them in critical thinking and Dewey for combining theory and practice.

Regards

Carmen Camilleri

Dear @Marwan, my favourite philosopher is George Boole, very famous English logician and  philosopher! Boolean algebra which I do apply in my work is the main reason for! I like Boole's definition of universe of discourse! Aristotle, as logicians, belongs here also!

Edward W. Said (1935 –2003) a Palestinian- American born in Jerusalem & died in New York. He obtained his B.A. from Princeton University. M.A. & PhD from Harvard University. He taught at prominent American Universities including Columbia, Stanford, and Yale.

He was one of the top professors, thinkers, philosophers, and politicians who lived for a cause & a mission in this life. His critical thinking was outstanding. I liked many of his ideas & I shall give few of his bright quotes as examples: “Much as I have no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, my first obligation has not been to be nice but to be true to my perhaps peculiar memories, experiences and feelings.” “Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires; that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate." “My argument is that history is made by men and women, just as it can also be unmade and rewritten, always with various silence and illusion, always with shapes imposed and disfigurements tolerated.” “Humanism is the only - I would go so far as saying the final- resistance we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history.”

Dmitriy Sergeevich Likhachov (28.11.1906-30.09.1999, St.Petersburg) is an ideal of Russian intelligentsia, a philologist, academician, Member of the Academy of Sciences of Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, corresponding Member of Austria, Britain, Italy, the USA. 500 scientific, 600 publicistic publications. To D.S.Likhachov, "Intellectual is not only educated person, but also a human being, having intellectual decency, moral independence without the ideology of mercenary. Intellectuality is education of thought thanks to European education. Intellectual doesn't change convictions from the point of view of utility. Conscience is a guardian angel of human honor. Intellectual means moral. The first intellectual in Russ was Maxim the Greek (15-16 c)"

Dear Roland,

For your fine answer, everything depends on how you interpret Marwan's question: is thinker here equivalent to philosopher?  In that case, I would find it difficult to classify Paul as a philosopher.  To my mind, a theologian differs from a philosopher.  On the other hand, if Marwan does not equate philosopher to thinker, that is, if the word "thinker" has a broader scope than "philosopher," I would have no difficulty in classifying Paul as a thinker.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) is one of the foremost philosophers of the golden age of Islamic tradition that also includes al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd. He is also known as al-Sheikh al-Rais (Leader among the wise men) a title that was given to him by his students. His philosophical works were one of the main targets of al-Ghazali’s attack on philosophical influences in Islam. In the West he is also known as the "Prince of Physicians" for his famous medical text al-Qanun "Canon". In Latin translations, his works influenced many Christian philosophers, most notably Thomas Aquinas.

The legacy of Avicenna in diverse languages (Persian/Arabic/English) may be followed in many internet sites: a good one is

http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/sina/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna

To Nelson (the thinker), much gratitude!

Dear Roland,

The relationship between theology and philosophy is so complex throughout history, that  it deserves an encyclopedic monograph, if one does not already exist. There are  theologians who are also philosophers in the sense that their theological doctrines fit  into a philosophical system.  Two well-known examples are Moses Maimonides, whose Jewish theology fits into an Aristotelian ethical model, and Albrecht Ritschl, whose Liberal Protestant theology belongs within a Neo-Kantian framework.  Philosophy can therefore come to the aid of theology (St. Thomas Aquinas), and I would imagine that the reverse is true.  Saint Paul started a trend by Hellenizing Christianity in the sense of introducing terms from Greek philosophy (for instance, psykhé) into it.

Here is the results from 2 surveys:: 

From the first link:

Most popular philosophers among the general public include Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

The most influential philosophers among philosophers are Hume, Kant and Wittgenstein

Here is a short list of the top five most influential philosophers(second link):

I. Socrates and Plato. It’s a tie. These two classic Greek philosophers arguably started the whole thing. Their ideas created the foundation for much of Western thought.

II. Rene Descartes. “I think, therefore I am” were the famous words uttered by the French philosopher Descartes. He is widely regarded as the father of modern philosophy. In his writings he set forward the idea that philosophy is about a personal experience with the world.

III. Friedrich Hegel. Hegel took on such lofty projects as describing the entirety of the existence of the world. In fact it was the subject of his book ThePhenomenology of Spirit. Perhaps the most prominent Romantic philosopher, Hegel set forward that man had fulfilled all that he would fulfill and that democracy and new advances in communication would end world as he knew it.

V. Immanuel Kant. Born in Germany, Kant gave the world A Critique of Pure Reason his most famous and seminal work. His influence on modern thought was long-lasting and continues to this day to influence such diverse fields as psychology, cognitive science, and phenomenology.

IV. Fredrick Nietzsche. Nietzsche is the philosopher that has had greatest impact on the way that the modern world is perceived. It was Nietzsche who famously said that “God was dead.” As a product of the late 19th Century he saw in its industrialization the social structure that would dominate the future.

http://forums.philosophyforums.com/...philosophers-of-all-time-57299.htm

http://owtp.org/filosofos.html

Socrates is my personal favorite. 

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Socrates

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. :)

Socrates

Without a doubt Rabindranath Tagore because his thoughts had helped me a lot and still are helping in overcoming various barriers in my personal life.

Dear Marwan,

Lovely responses and each merits a salute. I have quite a few favorites but then if I have to pick, here are my choices:

Khalil Gibran - for he said what he said with so much of simplicity yet the profound meaning makes my heart dance with joy. Here are some samples:

Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Work is love made visible.

Man is two men. One is awake in the darkness, and the other is asleep in light.

Remember, my brother, that the coin which you drop into the withered hand stretching toward you is the golden chain that binds your rich heart to the loving heart of God.

Swami Vivekananda - There is as yet no greater patriot - philosopher born in the history of India. Being a saint, he taught no religion and hardly ever spoke of this or that god. He spoke with moving passion about uplifting millions of people from poverty, of education, of character building, of service to humanity, more than service to god. I may end up writing volumes, but here's some samples:

The will is stronger than anything else. Everything must go down before the will, for, that comes from God and God himself; the pure and a strong will is omnipotent.

What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like a thunderbolt...bold words and bolder deeds are what we want..

One ounce of practice is worth twenty thousand tons of big talk.

Jalaluddin Rumi - For the intensity with which he showed that we are capable of loving the Lord who resides in each of us. I rather restrain myself from citing him....

Why is very difficult to answer, though I must admit that there isn't an iota of their teachings/sayings that resides in me. I am acutely aware that I am a perfect example of the most ordinary of humans that you may find anywhere, though I wish to adopt at least a word or two of what they said as the reigning philosophy of my life. May be in some birth that will ensue in the hundreds that I am bound to take...

Have a great day, Marwan. My apologies, if I sounded sentimental. 

What a subtle reader you are, dear Srinivasan! Thank you!

Dear Nelson,

All philosophers have contribute a lot. Square root of 2, is surely oa kind of  Platonic form, which  is recognised by all cultures. However, I prefer Aristotle who accept forms and ideas, but as abstractions of the "real world". Kant was a great philosopher, may be one the greatest! The two books that I post, have a new reconstruction of the whole philosophy based on common perception, historical development, evolution, and Theory of affordances of J. J. Gibson, and diagrammatic reasoning. If you read say Macbeth, you will see the mistakes of Kant, Hilbert abstract axiomatics, etc. This book is a book that at last we have it. Apriorist programs, like Plato, suppose a third world made up by ideas! This position is very difficult to accept!     

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

Aristotle

I haven't a favorite philosophy, I think that each philosopher from the Greeks, Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Persians...till the modern age ones from Europe and USA http://www.worldhistorycharts.com/famous-modern-philosophers/, has contributed by his way of thinking to the progress of the human knowledge and to the science fundamentals. In the field of computer science Noam Chomsky is the more influencing one for his theories in mathematics, artificial intelligence, logic, cognitive science, linguistics etc..

I attached the Frond matter of the book: Brian_Duignan The 100 most influential philosophers of all time.

My favourite philosopher is Aristotle

"The energy of the mind is the essence of life "

Dear @Markovic , I am not convince about Schopenhauer ascetisism!  Are You? Schopenhauer has been a role model for the young Nietzsche.

My beloved philosopher is my primary school teacher, late WILAYAT HUSSAIN ANSARI who loved me and taught me to love.  He was a philosopher of real deeds.

We used to follow his bicycle at that time. But, metaphorically, now I want to follow him in his good and excellent deeds. No philosopher could surpass him in my personal world.

Regards

ibagree with Mehree

Einstein, for being both brilliant and accessible to the public. A rare combination and for spearheading the revenge of the nerds.Not to mention his persistence for the quest for clearer understanding right up to his last breath.

Swami Vivekananda, because his sayings and teachings are so inspiring and motivational, and because he puts his philosophy of 'work is worship' in such a straight and simple manner, which can easily help connect to today's youth.

  He never considered anyone to be devoid of divinity. He said "Religion is the manifestation of divinity already in man". He also termed education as a manifestation of perfection already in man (by man he meant all human beings).  He was very practical in his approach and didn't want people to follow a conventional route- " He is an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in god. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself". He taught us how to "arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached", and also gave us the inspiration to stand up and deliver when you are done and dusted- "The remedy for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength" and "strength is life; weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery : weakness is death". He was a great son of India, a patriot to the core, whose heart and mind bled for the people- "So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!”. 

He instilled within us a deep sense of patriotism when he became the torchbearer of oriental philosophy and mesmerized the west with his golden speech that began with "Sisters and Brothers of America.." during the Parliament of World Religions, Chicago, 1893. He appeared at a time when India was under colonial rule, and his works predominantly emerged as a part of cultural and spiritual revolution.

Nietzsche. His constructive nihilism is sublime, the style of his prose is seductive. The way in which he thinks about morals, religion, nationalism, the state, and many topics is very accurate. He went to the roots of many aspects of social life in a time in which few people had a vision so clear about those topics.  

My fovorite philosopher is Jesus Christ because many of the things of what he said is fulfilled. Other promised things for the future by him, we hope.

Immanuel Kant, because he was raised Christian - yet, expanded the groundwork on metaphysics of morality - because he knew "the truth" was not always truthful. Jesus was an excellent philosopher, but he'd be shot down by the CIA today, unfortunately.